A contractor finds a stash of cash inside a wall. Who gets the money, the person who found it, the homeowner, or the descendants of the person who left it there? The fight over just such a case has left all three parties with little money. Bob Kitts found $182,000 in the wall of Amanda Reece's bathroom. When the two couldn't agree on how to split the money, the resulting publicity alerted the family of Patrick Dunne, who hid the money when he owned the house decades ago.
A court has divided the remaining money, but the exact details were not published. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHJNCy_68fJtiIPaltzwBwynBdkAD94AUVCO0 -Thanks, Em!
(image credit: AP/Bob Kitts)
Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.
Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and began leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.
A court has divided the remaining money, but the exact details were not published. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hHJNCy_68fJtiIPaltzwBwynBdkAD94AUVCO0 -Thanks, Em!
(image credit: AP/Bob Kitts)
I don't see how the contractor thought they had any right to the money.
Or how the previous owner thinks they do either.
New homeowner owns everything that house contains once they bought the house... no ifs ands or buts.
Exactly, what I was thinking...aren't they all crooks in the end? ;)
*no offense to our readers who are contractors! :p
I say, tough sh*t, guys. If you are stupid enough to forget all about the money and leave it behind then the money is fair game to whomever finds it.
The contractor gets nothing, and has no right.
Legally, the home owner should get it all. She owns the house, and everything within it. (Including things in the walls, like support beams, the electrical wires, hidden money or whatever).
Morally, she might decided to give the money to the 'kids' of the guy who left it there. If it was some bauble that had only sentimental value, she probably would. But do the kids want it because its money or because 'that what he would of wanted'? Probably the former.
Should the homeowner pay taxes now? Or more capital gains tax when she sells the house?
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”
Mahatma Gandhi
this only applies in the situation where the contractor was stupid enough to let the home owner know that he has found any money.